Video: Making sure your camera is set up correctly

Organizing your image library on your computer actually begins at your camera. There are a couple of settings that if you take care of them there on your capture device, it will make your life a lot easier later on, on the computer. I'm going to go over a few of them right now. Most of these are in the menu system. Now, you are going to see screenshots for my menu. Your menu might look different if you have a different type of camera. But the system itself is pretty much the same from camera to camera. You just go into menu and then you find these particular settings.

In this course, photographer Derrick Story teaches the concepts and techniques behind efficient photo management and backup, which becomes increasingly important as a photo collection grows. The course begins by showing how to transfer and organize photos "by hand"—that is, by copying them from a memory card to a hard drive without using software. In the second portion of the course, discover how to take advantage of the photo-management features provided by programs such as Lightroom and Aperture, by assigning descriptive keywords, by giving photos ratings and color-coded labels, and how smart album features can automatically collect photos that meet certain criteria.

The course concludes with a look at aspects of a good backup and archival strategy, ranging from the best file format for long-term backup to the best hardware options for offline storage.

Making sure your camera is set up correctly

Organizing your image library on your computer actually begins at your camera.There are a couple of settings that if you take care of them there on yourcapture device, it will make your life a lot easier later on, on the computer.I'm going to go over a few of them right now.Most of these are in the menu system.Now, you are going to see screenshots for my menu.Your menu might look different if you have a different type of camera.But the system itself is pretty much the same from camera to camera.You just go into menu and then you find these particular settings.

The first one is date and time, and that's very important because you want thecorrect timestamp for your images, so that if you sort by date or time orwhatever, everything is labeled correctly.And that is a setting.You just set the actual date, the actual time, off to the races you go.Unless, that is, you travel, and go to a different time zone.Make sure you update it then and watch out for daylight saving time.When you change the battery in your smoke alarm, also update all of yourcameras and that way your date and time will be correct.

The next one is file numbering and you see we have file numbers right here.And you notice that this card here,we start at 8737.We're not starting at 0001, and the reason being for that is that I have thefile numbering set to continuous.So, if I take a card out and put a new card in, it doesn't start the filenumbering all over again.It just picks up where it left off on the last card.And that's great, because over time you don't want to have a bunch of files onyour computer with the same file number.

You want to have as many unique file numbers as possible.Talking about the quality setting, which is the third one I'd like you to take alook at in your menu system. Two basic types.You have RAW and you have JPEG.RAW is great for people who like image editing, and like pulling the mostinformation that they can out of their photos.And JPEG is more convenient, it's easier.The camera does most of the processing for you.The only thing to keep in mind is that RAW files are much bigger than JPEGs,as you can see here.

So if you like image editing, if you like playing with your images, I wouldseriously consider shooting in RAW and just make sure that you have more harddisk space and larger memory cards.If that's not your thing, shooting JPEG is absolutely fine.Just remember to set the highest quality setting and the largest size for yourJPEGs, so that you're getting the best JPEGs possible out of your camera.And finally, the fourth setting that you may or may not have, not all camerashave this, but some cameras have copyright information that allow you to addyour name and your copyright to your photos.

And that comes in very handy once your photo leaves your computer.You share it with somebody, send it as an e-mail attachment, put on a Web page.Your name and your copyright information is permanently attached to that photo.So that if someone sees that photo,receives that photo, doesn't know who took it, they have a way to track you down.Plus, it's just nice to have your name on your photos.So those are the four basic settings that can save you a lot of work lateron on your computer.So go to your camera now, update those settings, and then you'll be ready to goon to the next movie.

There are currently no FAQs about Organizing and Archiving Digital Photos.

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